Holistic Pediatricians

Dr. Chheda – At 9 months of age, my favourite kitchen utensil is a pizza cutter! Nine months is when most babies start developing their pincer grasp. When babies can do this, that’s when I know that their muscles in their throat are developed adequately enough that they can tolerate finger foods.

So finger foods are anything that’s smaller than the size of a raisin. So you want whatever you make for dinner, just use that pizza cutter and cut it up into small little pieces so it’s smaller than the size of a raisin, and then give one or two to your baby and see if they’ll pick it up and put in their mouth. You can put it in their mouth as well too. But I know that they can tolerate it, they have this grasp, and it’s just so easy with the pizza cutter just to cut up the food for them.

Dr. Chheda – A quote that I came across recently is “Find friends that define weirdness as something to be celebrated and encouraged.” Isn’t this great? If we all had friends that supported us no matter how weird we were!

There is no such thing as perfect. We all have our little quirks, we all have our little “hmm, I don’t know about that person,” but we’re all individuals. And if you can find a group of friends that help you celebrate you as you are, that is the best friend you could have for life.

So that’s what you want. You wanna have friends around your children who help them be them, who celebrate them, who encourage them, and there’s no such thing as weird, perfect, normal. You just want friends around your child that celebrate them, and you wanna make sure that your child also celebrates others in their own uniqueness. ✨

Dr. Chheda – Understanding how teens think can transform your communication with them. Let’s break down the key insights:

Teen Thinking Patterns:

Focus on immediate rewards

Concrete vs. abstract thinking

Present-focused mindset

Similarity to toddler thinking patterns

Communication Strategy:

Focus on immediate consequences

Use relevant, current examples

Connect to their personal motivations

Keep messages in the “here and now”

Is your child having difficulty sleeping? It’s a common concern that we address during well visits, and there are some tips and tricks that you can do to help your child sleep better.

The first one is no screen time an hour before you sleep. So really that should be unwinding time. That should be meditation, maybe journaling, drawing, reading, yoga – absolutely.

The second is to make sure that you are physically active earlier in the day. When your body is physically tired, it will help you sleep better, but don’t exercise right before you sleep in that one hour.

The third, for our older kids, they could drink a little bit of chamomile tea, and that will help kind of calm them. They can also take magnesium. Teenagers can take 200 mg of magnesium to help them sleep. And side note: it also helps with some anxiety.

Lastly, make sure that the temperature is just right – not too cold, not too hot. Hope your child sleeps better tonight!

Dr. Chheda – Six months is when you can finally start putting sunscreen or insect repellent on your baby. Before then, their skin is very thin and they can absorb some harsh chemicals, so you don’t wanna put sunscreen or bug spray on your infants.

You wanna make sure that if you are out in the sun, that they’re shaded. You might wanna put a hat on. If you’re going to the beach, try to get some sort of canopy so that they’re in the shade, or stay indoors.

Most insects come out in the evening time, so just try not to go in the evening time to prevent bug bites. But after six months of age, you can start putting sunscreen (anyone with SPF of at least 30) and bug spray on them. ☀️

Dr. Chheda – How can you teach your kids resilience? Well, one of the first ways is when your child is, you know, about 15 months old, 15 to 18 months old. They’re starting to walk, they’re starting to fall down, they’re getting lots of bumps and bruises.

So instead of saying “Oh my poor sweetie, you got hurt! Oh let me pick you up, let me give you lots of hugs and kisses,” what you can say is “Oh no, you got hurt. Get up, brush it off, brush it off. You’ll be fine.”

That can teach your child from a very early age that falls happen, mistakes happen. It’s okay, you can get up and you can try again, and I will always be here to support you.

If your child is really sick, crying in pain, broken bone, lots of blood, please don’t tell them to just brush it off. That’s something that definitely needs attention. But for those minor “Oh I plopped on my butt and nothing really hurts, but I wanna cry cause it startled me,” it’s okay. “Brush it off, brush it off.” And then they’ll learn that you will always be there to support them, but it’s okay to get back up and try again. 💪

Dr. Chheda – 🌸 Teenage girls and their moms are very, very concerned about periods. “When is my period coming? Is my period coming? Is my period every month?” It just makes them seem like they’re very regular if the period is gonna be coming every month.

It makes you feel like you’re on a good schedule, it makes you feel like your body is normal if you have a period every month. But do you really need a period every month? Not according to Mother Nature. According to Mother Nature, if you have a period, you essentially failed what Mother Nature wanted you to do, which was to get pregnant. Now I don’t want all my 12 year olds getting pregnant, for my 16 year olds you know wait – that’s how society is now.

But it is okay if you don’t have a period every month. It is okay to manage it so that you don’t have a period every month, and it’s perfectly fine for the body because that’s the way the body was set up.

Please talk to your pediatrician if you have more questions about periods. 🌸

🏕️ Scouting America, it formerly was called Boy Scouts of America, but now to kind of have a more inclusive name since they are taking everybody, boys and girls, it has officially been changed to Scouting America.

My kids are in Scouts. We love it! It truly challenges both my daughters and my son to make good choices. It teaches good life skills, absolutely teaches life skills, and really to be more resilient and face challenges head on.

Dr. Chheda – 👶 Babies can get spoiled by 6 months of age, so around 4 months of age you wanna stop attending to every single one of their cries. Now you know their hunger cry, you know their pain cry – you always wanna attend that. But it’s their attention cry – “wait, wait, wait, I just want some attention” – that’s the one I want you to ignore for a few minutes.

You can kinda peek around the corner and make sure they’re doing okay, but leave them alone. Don’t immediately go to them, and this includes everybody in the house, whether it’s grandparents, whether it’s older siblings. Tell them to leave the 4 month old alone for a few minutes and see what the 4 month old does.

You know, maybe the 4 month old will get distracted by something else, or maybe they’ll find their hands, or they’ll find something, but let them learn how to self soothe.

This is the age when they learn how to self soothe. If by 6 months they haven’t figured out how to self soothe, and you still are going to them for that attention cry, they are spoiled and they will manipulate you. 🌿

Dr. Chheda – A typical stomach virus will start with vomiting for 24 to 48 hours. If you’re gonna get a fever, you’re gonna get it during the vomiting period. After the vomiting period is over, then you end up with diarrhoea, and the diarrhoea can last for up to 10 days.

For toddlers, we actually want them to have diarrhoea because that’s the only way to get rid of the virus. So you will have vomiting and possibly fever for 24 to 48 hours, and then the diarrhea starts. The diarrhea can last for up to 10 days depending on the type of virus it is.

They can get dehydrated, but as long as they’re taking in enough fluids, they shouldn’t have a problem with dehydration. During the diarrhoea period, we get more concerned with the vomiting period with dehydration. But with the diarrhoea period, they’re eating fine, they’re just passing everything through, so you wanna make sure that they’re getting plenty of liquids.

One thing that some people avoid is dairy products, because if you have dairy products during the diarrhea period, the vomiting may come back. So you wanna try to avoid dairy products, but otherwise everything else is typically fine to have during the diarrhea period.

You also may wanna avoid anything with a lot of sugar content like fruit juices, because the sugar can cause the diarrhea to be worse. However, if that’s the only thing that they’re drinking, we want them to drink it because we want them to stay hydrated during the diarrhea period.

For the vomiting period which is early on, that’s a little bit more tough, but you should talk to your pediatrician about that if you feel like they’re getting dehydrated. 🏥